Read here about a designer and researcher active in the field of tensegrity construction and research. There is also a page in Italian, here: Di Carlo, Biagio Italian.

About Biagio Di Carlo

Known nationally and internationally for his publications and studies regarding ‘Design Science Structures’, architect Biagio Di Carlo received his degree in Architecture in 1976 from the University of Pescara. His thesis, written under the advisement of Eduardo Vittoria, received the maximum possible score and was published. Since then he has been invited to hold workshops, lectures and seminars at the architectural faculties of Pescara and Ascoli Piceno, the engineering faculty of the University of Bergamo, AIB in Viareggio, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan, national meeting on mathematics in Castel San Pietro, Bologna-Italy, the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Copenhagen, the faculty of Architecture of Oaxaca in Mexico, the international meeting on Leonardo Da Vinci in Perdizes, Portugal, Enschede Bridge 2013 in Holland, Symmetry festival Delft, Holland.

Di Carlo sees tensegrity as one of four best practices, including polyhedra, geodesic domes and reciprocal frames. He renders these in the ideographic tetrahedron as follows:

Through this work Di Carlo aims to raise awareness of these forms and design science in general.

Design Science Tetrahedron (DST)

The DST was published for the first time in 2004 on the book 'CUPOLE GEODETICHE' (now out of print). The english version was presented for the first time at the Delft Symmetry Festival (2013) on the paper 'DESIGN SCIENCE STRUCTURES'.

In this ideographic synthesis topics will refer to the following four structural families with the sacred geometry and the golden section as common denominators: 1) Platonic and archimedean solids; 2) the geodesic structures by Richard Buckminster Fuller; 3) the tensegrity structures by Kenneth Snelson; 4) the reciprocal frames by Leonardo da Vinci. The polyhedral space modules related to design science represent the starting point for a correct artistic and scientific design. When we follow the rules existing at the micro, medium and macro scales, we are in line with the natural method that characterizes design science.//Leonardo da Vinci wrote: ‘Learn first patience and then the science that comes from it, and then the art that comes from that science and that patience’.//

Publications

Biagio Di Carlo publishes in English and Italian.

Di Carlo has published articles in italian and international journals for architecture, such as Bioarchitettura, l’Architettura Naturale, Spazio Architettura, Dome Magazine and the Nexus Network Journal. He is also the author of several books, including Polyhedra (2012) in collaboration with Claudio Lanzi and Silvio Maracchia, Le cupole geodetiche di Adriano Graziotti (in collaboration with engineer Claudio Lanzi), Strutture Reciproche (2012), with an introduction by Olga Popovic Larsen, Strutture e scienza del design (2011), Le coperture lignee di Leonardo e la nuova ricerca strutturale (2010), Poliedri (2005), Poliedri e sezione aurea (2005), Strutture Geodetiche (2004), Strutture Geodetiche Ellissoidiche (2004), Bambu’ Arundo Donax e scienza del Design (2013) and Tensegrity World (2013), with an introduction by Kenneth Snelson.

He keeps in touch with people included in his bibliographies and interviews and in his website. His main purpose is to expand the interest on this field as wide as possible. His article “Reciprocal Frames” (N.34 Nov- Dec. 2003) appeared in the review “BIOARCHITETTURA”. It was the first Italian article on this subject. In 2008, the international review “Nexus Network Journal”.(Vol 10,1)- Williams Kim, Birkhauser published the article: “The Wooden roofs of Leonardo and the new structural research”. The issue reports about the international meeting “Leonardo 2003- Architecture and Mathematics” held in Vinci in the year 2003..

The books of Biagio Di Carlo may be purchased at http://stores.lulu.com/biagiodicarlo and https://www.amazon.com/Biagio-Di-Carlo/e/B0045B4C0Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1543045700&sr=1-2-ent

Non-Resonant Tensegrity Structures

Di Carlo studies non-resonant tensegrity structures, also known as de-resonated tensegrities or rigid tensegrities, by linking them to reciprocal frames.